On May 10, 2018, I had the pleasure of presenting a poster entitled “Rocks all the way down: The earthshaking history of Princeton mineralogy” at the 3rd annual Princeton Research Day event.

Charting the history of Princeton mineral and earth science from the early American republic to today, “Rocks all the way down” showcases how mineralogy both formed the foundation and ongoing continuity of earth science at Princeton. And given Princeton’s place in several scientific revolutions over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries, it is a fundamentally important story that explains how and why we came to better understand the natural world.

The effort is part of a project funded by the Princeton University Department of Geosciences, to be eventually published in article form.

At “PRD,” it was wonderful to connect with so many members of the Princeton community in discussing the University’s rich history in the earth sciences.

You can view the poster below; featured photo is courtesy of Georgette Chalker.

In 1989, The Taos News asked residents to predict what Taos would be like 20 years into the future. Nearly three decades later, I asked them how it all turned out—and what they now hope for in the years to come. What emerges is a startling portrait of a community’s transformation over the years, and a new vision of what may be on the way.

The Avengers: Infinity War is projected to gross $240 million nationwide its opening weekend, making for the second U.S. highest box office debut in history.

As such, it’s the movie that everyone is talking about—and so I’ve added my voice to the mix. Critics don’t always write from a screenwriting perspective, and so my take considers the storytelling challenges of a film that boasts more than 40 recognizable characters.

Westworld, HBO’s sci-fi Western TV series, returns for a second season on Sunday, April 22. But Westworld has a particular problem among television dramas—the first season was structured like a puzzle box—and the same format might not be as effective the second time around.

In anticipation of the season premier, my latest post on Medium explores the storytelling choices showrunners Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy may have had to consider while writing the second season.

In doing so, I’m not trying to preemptively critique Nolan and Joy’s storytelling decisions. I’m merely laying out the storytelling challenge of Westworld to appreciate the difficult job such storytellers have. As one of my writing friends has stated—if this job was easy, then everyone would be doing it.

Within certain storytelling genres (such as fiction & screenwriting), there lurks an essential element that is often difficult to pin down. That element is narrative architecture, the structure of the story that — like the steel frame of a building — works to justify a plotline, and most critically, a character’s decision-making within that context. A self-supporting narrative architecture is a positive feedback loop that is capable of resisting an earthquake of scrutiny; a flimsy narrative architecture will collapse like a house of straw in a tornado.

On March 29, 2018, I gave a 90-minute professional development workshop on “Narrative Architecture” to Writing Center fellows at Princeton University. By using examples as varied as Portlandia, Vertigo, and Macbeth, we analyzed the plot and character dynamics intrinsic to narrative architecture, progressing from a single scene to a sequence of scenes. These examples helped us answer the following critical questions:

What events must happen for a character to make a critical decision? How can you arrange these events to make that character’s decision justified?

With a deeper understanding of narrative architecture, we practiced analyzing a student fiction story and brainstorming how a Writing Center tutor might be able to give productive suggestions to a student attempting to write an engaging, efficient, and airtight story.

The main ideas of this workshop are currently being adapted to an essay format for future publication. Many thanks to the Princeton Writing Program for inviting me to give the workshop, and to the enthusiastic fellows who participated.

For the longest time, going to the movies was a warped retelling of the American dream. It was a meritocratic space that rewarded the rugged, the prepared — those who got there early and, setting down their windbreakers, established their own claims on the territory.

But the way we watch movies is changing. It not only affects how we experience storytelling, but it also changes what stories are produced. It even changes how we behave at the movies—and in the world at large.

And now, you can also listen to it (if you’re a Medium member)! The Medium editors recently selected the story for transformation into an audio story, and you can listen to the audio version of the story — read by a professional voice actor — on the article page.